Callouts & quotes from 621+ activist slides

"“For very long periods of time, I think that Fannie and Freddie have been well run without creating risk to the government, as well as they’ve played an important role...I believe these are very important entities to provide the necessary liquidity for housing finance and what I’ve committed to is that I will work with both of the Democrats and Republicans. What I’ve said and I believe, we need housing finance reform, so we shouldn’t just leave Fannie and Freddie as is for the next 4 or 8 years under government control, without a fix. I believe we can find a bipartisan fix for these so on the one hand we don’t end up with a giant bailout, on the other hand that we don’t run the risk of completely limiting housing finance.” — Steve Mnuchin, Treasury Secretary nominee, on Jan. 19, 2017"

""While this letter presents Elliott's perspectives, Shareholder Nominees will form their own, independent views on the Company, its assets, and its strategy. These five accomplished individuals bring deep knowledge and experience in areas that are severely lacking in the existing board." — Elliott Letter to Shareholders, January 29th 2013. "These independent directors agreed to join our board, because they believe in our outstanding plan, and they recognize that our plan is the right plan for all of our shareholders." "We have had this strategic transformation, as my remarks noted, underway, really going back...since I became Chairman...In fact, Elliott got on the train after it really left the station...This is a culmination of a multi year strategy..." — John Hess, March 4th 2013."

"“These independent directors agreed to join our board, because they believe in our outstanding plan, and they recognize that our plan is the right plan for all of our shareholders.” “We have had this strategic transformation, as my remarks noted, underway, really going back...since I became Chairman...In fact, Elliott got on the train after it really left the station...This is a culmination of a multi year strategy...” — John Hess, March 4th 2013. “While this letter presents Elliott’s perspectives, Shareholder Nominees will form their own, independent views on the Company, its assets, and its strategy. These five accomplished individuals bring deep knowledge and experience in areas that are severely lacking in the existing board.” — Elliott Letter to Shareholders, January 29th 2013."

""These independent directors agreed to join our board, because they believe in our outstanding plan, and they recognize that our plan is the right plan for all of our shareholders." "We have had this strategic transformation, as my remarks noted, underway, really going back...since I became Chairman...In fact, Elliott got on the train after it really left the station...This is a culmination of a multi year strategy..." — John Hess, March 4th 2013; "While this letter presents Elliott's perspectives, Shareholder Nominees will form their own, independent views on the Company, its assets, and its strategy. These five accomplished individuals bring deep knowledge and experience in areas that are severely lacking in the existing board." — Elliott Letter to Shareholders, January 29th 2013"

"“For very long periods of time, I think that Fannie and Freddie have been well run without creating risk to the government, as well as they’ve played an important role... I believe these are very important entities to provide the necessary liquidity for housing finance and what I’ve committed to is that I will work with both of the Democrats and Republicans. What I’ve said and I believe, we need housing finance reform, so we shouldn’t just leave Fannie and Freddie as is for the next 4 or 8 years under government control, without a fix. I believe we can find a bipartisan fix for these so on the one hand we don’t end up with a giant bailout, on the other hand that we don’t run the risk of completely limiting housing finance.” — US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Jan. 19, 2017"

""The amount of FCF should continue to rise in the next two years, in spite of rising capex. As a result, we expect share repurchases/cancellations to recur every year, in addition to rising cash dividends." — Macquarie, July 28, 2016; "One way of unlocking this value could be a holding and operating company separation..." — Morgan Stanley, July 2, 2016; "However, given very modest or even negative market expectations, we see significant rerating upside potential if the company implements better shareholder returns, either proactively or pushed by minority shareholders." — Citi, October 27, 2015; "We believe SEC's significant non-operating asset value should become clear through proactive shareholder returns and the group restructuring process." — Barclays, October 7, 2015"

"“Based on the information disclosed in the proxy statement, the performance-based RSU and performance-based cash will be subject to a simple performance hurdle (2012 corporate EBIT). If the hurdles is achieved, these awards will be subject two further years of time-vesting. We believe long-term incentives are best structured using performance metrics measured over at least three years. A period of one year does not measure performance in a sufficiently ‘long term’ manner, nor does it property incentive executives to focus on the long-term fiscal health of the Company.” — Glass Lewis. “ [the structure is]...far from ideal and leads us to question how committed the Compensation Committee truly is to linking equity pay to corporate performance.” — Glass Lewis Conclusion"

"“For very long periods of time, I think that Fannie and Freddie have been well run without creating risk to the government, as well as they’ve played an important role... I believe these are very important entities to provide the necessary liquidity for housing finance and what I’ve committed to is that I will work with both of the Democrats and Republicans. What I’ve said and I believe, we need housing finance reform, so we shouldn’t just leave Fannie and Freddie as is for the next 4 or 8 years under government control, without a fix. I believe we can find a bipartisan fix for these so on the one hand we don’t end up with a giant bailout, on the other hand that we don’t run the risk of completely limiting housing finance.” — US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin"

""Our ending inventory balance was $205 million, in line with our expectations and up from $81 million a year ago. The difference is primarily a combination of 3 things. First, as we said last quarter, we continue to build back our inventory levels through fiscal '24 to support strong consumer demand. Second, approximately $28 million of the increase is the result of taking ownership of inventory from China when it ships versus when it enters our distribution center here in the U.S. Lastly, our consolidated results include Naturium for the first time, which added approximately $25 million of inventory. We believe we have the appropriate levels of inventory across the business to service our customers and support the demand we're seeing." — Mandy Fields, ELF CFO"

""And in the specific case of HMA, we think that this is precisely the sort of action that could fix long-standing problems. In short, we think that Glenview is pursuing precisely the correct course and believe that it can be successful in building a consensus among HMA shareholders to nominate new directors and change the course of the company." — CRT Capital Group LLC, June 12, 2013; "We believe HMA shares will trade higher if the Board adopts any of a number of possible shareholder friendly actions... Given the recent poison pill adoption, it does not appear that the Board is currently amenable to such overtures, but the possibility remains that an activist could call a special meeting to introduce a replacement slate of directors." — Citi, June 12, 2013"

"“Mark Ghobrial has definitely grown his program, more than doubled its size. The guy in Mayo Clinic at Scottsdale has more than doubled theirs. Part of it is that they’re willing to take organs that others haven’t been willing to - older donors, all that stuff.” — One of the top liver transplant surgeons in the world, based at a leading Midwest academic center; “So, a place well-known for using TransMedics nationally is Mayo Scottsdale. Scottsdale went from being a medium-sized program to two years ago being the largest transplant program by volume in the country. I believe that was mostly through the expanded use of organs, specifically OCS, is my understanding.” — Transplant hepatologist and director of the liver program at a Midwest academic center"

"“I would say that's almost certainly the case. It certainly was the case when I worked there. We built 300 cells a day, and a few of them were okay to test.” — Former employee; “The chances of this getting broken are probably astronomically high. For sure it was high in what I saw. The separator itself would break for manual labor reasons.” — Former employee; “I believe them for a sample or two or maybe three or maybe four or maybe 10, but I don't believe that they can do that pretty consistently. It's not a robust process at the moment. So, even with a non-robust process, you will probably get some good cells. I don't doubt that part. It's just, can you do it robustly? And from the people that I still talk to, they can't.” — Another former employee"

"“There’s no real business there”; “They don’t have those products” “I think the big hiccup or red flag right now is you could say, where are those products? For a company that’s been around for 13 years, it seems to me, if I was going public, I’d have this long list of amazing products—they don’t all have to be billion-dollar products, but something that looks tangible that says, we have succeeded and provided value to our partners and provided a good return on investment. And they don’t have that story. They don’t have those products. And so, do you believe that they are going to build those products and are going to have some success? Or do you believe that it’s just a smokescreen? There’s no real business there.” — Former director-level employee"

""We want a Hall of Fame guy. I think the specs are pretty obvious...you want someone who's an absolute proven leader, somebody who's run a major business, somebody who in the past has not only demonstrated their ability to control thoughts and innovate, but someone that can build revenue. You'd like to find somebody that has both retail, and what I'll call, BSD experience. And our expectations are...we're going to find a superior CEO to come in and take the company to the next level." — Neil Austrian. "We find the hire to be very surprising and we believe the market will as well. In recent meetings with Mr. Austrian, we came away believing he was not interested and not a candidate for the full time position." — Deutsche Bank report, May 23, 2011"

""Finally, our emerging pipeline across all therapeutic areas is one of the most promising in our history... The significant opportunities ahead of us requires us to ensure the right level of investment behind R&D and certain commercial capabilities, and we are doing just that." — Giovanni Caforio, Chairman & CEO, February 2018; "I'm also excited by the progress with our diversified pipeline and the work we are doing in cardiovascular disease, immunoscience and fibrosis... we are executing very well, and I believe we are focused on the right strategic opportunities for the future. We're investing commercially and in our pipeline to drive growth, and I feel very good about the progress we're making." — Giovanni Caforio, Chairman & CEO, July 2018"

"I’m personally worried about the reliability issues Astra will face...every single component on Astra’s rocket is cheap. And they are rigorous about testing and they test really hard, and they do everything they can, but still, they don’t have the redundancies that other rocket companies have...I’m not sure customers will be happy with losing half of their payloads...Kemp insists that because it’s a cheap rocket, the customers will have cheap payloads...so the companies will be ok to make two, and launch one / lose one, because it’s a lot cheaper than any other access to space...honestly, not sure how the market will take it when rockets keep failing and I believe they will. — Industry professional with knowledge of Astra rocket development"

"Exiting Thermal Coal Producers - Thermal coal is significantly carbon intensive, becoming less and less economically viable, and highly exposed to regulation because of its environmental impacts. With the acceleration of the global energy transition, we do not believe that the long-term economic or investment rationale justifies continued investment in this sector. As a result, we are in the process of removing from our discretionary active investment portfolios the public securities (both debt and equity) of companies that generate more than 25% of their revenues from thermal coal production, which we aim to accomplish by the middle of 2020 — BlackRock, Sustainability as BlackRock's New Standard for Investing, 2020 Letter to Clients."

"“While GSE revenues and earnings are significantly higher now vs pre-GFC levels driven by much higher guarantee fees and meaningfully larger guarantee portfolios, required minimum capital levels have increased far more meaningfully, resulting in a sharp decline in run-rate ROEs. We believe that the only realistic way to solve for this is to remove the stability buffer and take the minimum capital level back to 2.5%. The other alternative is to increase guarantee fees, but we estimate that the increases would have to be in the 20-25 bp range (from the current 65 bp level), which is likely to be politically unacceptable since it would increase mortgage rates by an equivalent amount.” — Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (emphasis added), 1/5/2025"

"Exiting Thermal Coal Producers - Thermal coal is significantly carbon intensive, becoming less and less economically viable, and highly exposed to regulation because of its environmental impacts. With the acceleration of the global energy transition, we do not believe that the long-term economic or investment rationale justifies continued investment in this sector. As a result, we are in the process of removing from our discretionary active investment portfolios the public securities (both debt and equity) of companies that generate more than 25% of their revenues from thermal coal production, which we aim to accomplish by the middle of 2020 — BlackRock, Sustainability as BlackRock's New Standard for Investing, 2020 Letter to Clients"

""While GSE revenues and earnings are significantly higher now vs pre-GFC levels driven by much higher guarantee fees and meaningfully larger guarantee portfolios, required minimum capital levels have increased far more meaningfully, resulting in a sharp decline in run-rate ROEs. We believe that the only realistic way to solve for this is to remove the stability buffer and take the minimum capital level back to 2.5%. The other alternative is to increase guarantee fees, but we estimate that the increases would have to be in the 20-25 bp range (from the current 65 bp level), which is likely to be politically unacceptable since it would increase mortgage rates by an equivalent amount." — Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (emphasis added), 1/5/2025"

"They're not using the treadmill right now because it's a clothes hanger and it's dusty. Nobody likes running on a treadmill at home because it's boring... We can bring our insanely motivating fantastic instructors into your home, onto your 60-inch television screen... And with that subscription, they get yoga included. They get out to running included. They get cycling. They can go to their gym... We believe it's five years from now, two years from now, when your treadmill breaks, you're going to go to a Peloton store near you and you're going to see one of our two treadmills and you say honey, I don't want the dopey old treadmill from the dopey old fitness equipment company of yesteryear. I want it Peloton tread. — John Foley (CEO)"

""We believe the question of whether Kao accelerates growth for beauty care and cosmetics in FY2025 is very important for achieving FY2025 guidance and the medium-term business plan" — J.P. Morgan. "The health & beauty care business did not perform as well as we were expecting, due partly to the booking of costs associated with business revamps and higher marketing outlays. The cosmetics business also continued to struggle." — Daiwa. "Growth strategies for health & beauty care and cosmetics look a bit underwhelming based on 4Q results and FY12/25 sales guidance" — SMBC. "[Hasebe] noted that cosmetics are a high-margin business and that the company would work towards a 15-20% OPM in the business without providing a timeframe" — CLSA."

"“We are downgrading our rating on Alcoa to Neutral from Overweight as we believe the market will be disappointed with both the strategic direction from the new CEO, [Dr.] Klaus Kleinfeld, and the company’s near term earnings due to higher than expected input costs.” — J.P. Morgan, 6/10/08; “Throughout his speech, [Dr.] Kleinfeld kept emphasizing that Alcoa’s integrated structure is a key strength, not just for Alcoa but for the industry as a whole.” — Platts Metals Week Article, 9/15/08; “The Alcoa advantage raises the question that I have heard from many of you and I think that we more and more often have good answers to it raises the question of what gives you Alcoa the right to own that business?” — Dr. Kleinfeld, 11/10/2010"

"With respect to the Restructuring line item in particular, the Company believes its exclusion from the Company's calculation of Adjusted Gross Profit and Adjusted EBITDA is appropriate and not misleading because (i) it adjusts for expense items that are unusual, non-recurring, and in some cases non-cash operating expenses, (ii) the expenses reflected in the Restructuring line item have not been incurred at scale in the past and are not reasonably expected to be incurred at scale in the next two years and thereafter and (iii) the expenses reflected in the Restructuring line item are separate and distinct from the normal recurring cash expenses the Company expects to incur as a public company. — SEC Correspondence, April 6, 2021"

"In November, we rolled out a trial plan, whereby the qualified agencies are provided with a different level of additional cash incentives if they reach certain growth targets. Although such incentives will likely cause cost in revenue to continue to fluctuate in the future, we believe it will better motivate the agencies and individual broadcasters to invest and grow their business within our ecosystem, which in turn will grow ours. — CFO Johnathan Zhang Q4 2017 Earnings Call; We scaled back the revenue oriented operating efforts around the quarterly competition event. Therefore, cost on bonus or rewards offered to broadcasters during the tournament, was significantly reduced. — Momo CFO Jonathan Zhang on Q1 2018 Earnings Call"

"“Because of what we've done over the last 25 years, we have every single data point about the student. We understand their demographics, we understand siblings. We understand the bus routes. You may not believe what -- or think about what an impact a bus route can make on students' academic performance. But that's a really real factor. And that's the type of data that we have in our platform.” “We, of course, have all of their test scores, the courses that they've been taught, their grades, the attendance, the behavior incidents, programs, enrollments, teachers that are teaching them, what they're being taught in the class, how much of time do they spend online in our systems.” — 2023 PowerSchool Investor Day Statement"

"We believe MAKO has demonstrated excellent market acceptance of their partial knee application. However, our analysis suggest there's a bigger opportunity in total hips and total knees to leverage Stryker's reconstructive implants. We look forward to sharing more regarding our plans for robotic-assisted surgery later in 2014. — IR Owen, Q4 2013. In terms of the integration, I think the most challenging part, and I think it's fair to say, we underestimated the complexity of it, but feel very comfortable with the trajectory we are on. — IR Owen, Q3 2013. Yeah, I would tell you, when we look at the performance in the quarter, I think it's just simply too soon. We are not seeing a competitive impact. — IR Owen, Q2 2019."

"Turning to Slide 9, as we bring Vocera into Stryker, we will be a category leader in the fast growing digital care coordination and communication segment. The global digital care coordination and communication segment is in its infancy and is estimated to be approaching $1 billion today. However, we believe that the addressable opportunity is significantly larger and will further expand over time as hospitals prioritize investment in more modern communication and workflow solutions. The annual rate for the category is in the mid-teens and is accretive to the total Stryker growth rate making it an attractive market adjacency to continue to drive our growth profile. — Andy Pierce, Stryker Group President on M&A Call"

"<Q - Paul Steep>: Okay. And on the GEO side, you talked about a strategic alternative process. How should we think about the timing for that, Howard? <A - Howard L. Lance>: It's actively in process now. It has been for a while. I won't predict again and we haven't made any determination what the final outcome will be but it's fair to say we're looking at a range of options, all of it trying to accomplish one thing: position Maxar for growth and value creation going forward. We do not believe at this point we will see much in the way of a market recovery for GEO. So at a minimum, we are downsizing, continuing to cut staff to align with the workload, cutting our footprint, making available — Q2'2018 Conference Call"

"“Apply a 10% premium to the resulting theoretical value to reflect the high visibility of medium-term earnings growth. Reflecting the strong growth potential of the company’s business, especially its automotive operations.” — July 22, 2016; “Nidec emphasized organic growth and lifted FY20 organic growth goal by 20% to JPY 600 billion.” — October 25, 2016; “We believe the main factors that put the company in sight of FY 3/21 autos-related sales of JPY 600 billion via organic growth are rising share for existing offerings such as electrical power steering motors, as well as increasing orders for items including motors for new-generation brake systems, and products combining ECUs and sensors.” — October 25, 2016"

""Director Tenure: Boards should consider all relevant facts and circumstances to determine whether a director should be considered independent - these considerations include the director's years of service on the board - extended periods of service may adversely impact a director's ability to bring an objective perspective to the boardroom. We believe director independence can be compromised at 12 years of service - in these situations a company should carry out rigorous evaluations to either classify the director as non-independent or provide a detailed annual explanation of why the director can continue to be classified as independent." — CalPERS, Governance and Sustainability Principles, September 2019."

"“diabetes is not an insignificant side effect...that is a very serious side effect in this patient population...and it’s very contrary to the articulated goal of therapy in the first place...we did see that as a side effect...clearly....and I think it is significant...I felt like it makes no sense to have this as one of your primary side effects for the drug, given its goal...it really did not make sense to me”; “it makes no sense...why would you even want to go down that route? It just made no sense to me...I think for a lot of people, they’ve kind of drunk the Kool-Aid, and they just want to believe that this is an insignificant side effect.” — Ex-Soleno employee #2, key role in clinical trial program"

""To this day, I don’t believe in sequels. I can’t follow popular cycles. I have to move on to new things—there are many new worlds to conquer." — Walt Disney, 1966 Letter to Shareholders; "I’d say we’re leaning a little bit more into sequels and franchises, some that we feel great about like Toy Story as a for instance, obviously Star Wars, Avatar we’ve talked about. Marvel is starting to focus on some of its stronger franchises going forward. But I’ll leave it at that. And I think given the environment and given what it takes to get people out of their homes to see a film, doing that, leaning on franchises that are familiar is actually a smart thing." — Robert A. Iger, CEO & Director, February 2024"

"On Nickelodeon, you mentioned third party set top box data showing something different than the drop that Nielsen is showing. Can you just give us a sense of whether that third party set top box data is showing Nickelodeon ratings flat or up or just not declined as much as Nielsen? I'm just sort of curious relative to the 15% to 20% decline that Nielsen is showing. — Question. Because we're working very closely with Nielsen and MRC, I don't want to go into too much detail, but let's just say that we wouldn't have had to have any conversation with either of them based on the set top box data that they are examining. That's the reason everybody believes there's an anomaly — Answer (Philippe Dauman)."

"We believe that investor caution on the stock has resulted from its sizeable ownership of Nordea. — Credit Suisse, 11 Dec. 2019; Nordea share price weakness is a near term distraction to Sampo's core dividend based investment thesis. — Merrill Lynch, 25 Jan. 2018; Sampo is weighed down by the loss of the investment story and Nordea's weak development [...] associated company Nordea is pulling back the Group. — Kauppalehti, 9 Jul. 2020; The shares have been weak due to its 20% Nordea holding, dragging on the dividend prospects which is key to the Nordics' safe haven appeal. — Citi, 29 Jul. 2020; Nordea and its dividend have been given too much weight in Sampo's share. — Antti Saari, 7 Aug. 2019"

""While this letter presents Elliott’s perspectives, Shareholder Nominees will form their own, independent views on the Company, its assets, and its strategy. These five accomplished individuals bring deep knowledge and experience in areas that are severely lacking in the existing board." — Elliott Letter to Shareholders, January 29th 2013; "Shareholder Nominees are completely independent, would constitute a minority of directors, and, unlike Hess's nominees, have not preapproved any plan. If elected to the Board, each of these executives will bring substantial expertise, experience, and independence that we believe is sorely needed at Hess." — Elliott Letter to Shareholders, March 26th 2013"

""Kate [Lumen CEO Kate Johnson] has painted this picture of the demand for the fiber as solely tied to AI...that's not the whole picture, these companies have been buying fiber IRUs since I first got into Level 3 [many] years ago...it's the best marketing effort I've seen in a long time from them...Why would you ever talk about taking down 10% capacity from Corning?...They're trying to paint the picture of 'AI, AI, AI' and 'we're the best company positioned now for infrastructure'...believe me, that's a fantastic f-cking story what they're doing right now, but that is not going to solve the overall business balance sheet the way they need to." — Former senior executive, Lumen and Level 3"

""We believe board independence is essential to good corporate governance. In addition to having a board's majority made up of independent members, we generally prefer an independent board chair" — Capital Group. "Northern Trust generally leaves the choice of chairman to the board's discretion... However, Northern Trust will vote case by case on whether to support shareholder resolutions seeking the separation of chairman and CEO" — Northern Trust. "MFS believes boards should include some form of independent leadership responsible for amplifying the views of independent directors and setting meeting agendas, and this is often best positioned as an independent chair of the board" — MFS."

""And so while I do believe smart implants and wearables is a big part of the future, which is why we did the Orthosensor acquisition, and we'll continue to pursue this. I think it's going to take time for this to really demonstrate the value because what data are you collecting? ...And there are a lot of question marks today. I think the data is going to be useful, but we have to be able to turn that data into something that actually validates the need for it. And we're not at that stage yet. So I think this will be something that will grow over time, but it's not something that's going to transform the market in a very, very fast period of time." — CEO Lobo, MS Conf, Sept 2021"

""We were stunned to learn today that FREEDOM FINANCE UKRAINE LLC was included on the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine sanctions list, which included more than 2,500 companies and individuals, and was released on October 19, 2022. We believe that the inclusion of the company on this list is erroneous." — Freedom Holding Corp Press Release. "The list of restrictions imposed by Ukraine for both individuals and legal entities includes 15 items, including the blocking of assets, restrictions on trade operations, a ban on the withdrawal of capital from Ukraine, a suspension of the fulfillment of economic and financial obligations, etc." — Unattributed source."

"“I think the big hiccup or red flag right now is you could say, where are those products? For a company that’s been around for 13 years, if I was going public, I’d have this long list of amazing products—they don’t all have to be billion-dollar products, but something that looks tangible that says, we have succeeded and provided value to our partners and provided a good return on investment. And they don’t have that story. They don’t have those products. And so, do you believe that they are going to build those products and are going to have some success? Or do you believe that it’s just a smokescreen? There’s no real business there.” — Former director-level employee"

""The board should exercise objective judgement on corporate affairs and be able to make decisions independently of management. The roles of chairperson and CEO should not be held by the same individual." — Norges Bank Investment Manager. "We generally support proposals requesting the separation of the CEO and chair roles. We believe that the board should be chaired by an independent director and that CEO and chair roles should only be combined in very limited circumstances." — CalPERS. "The board should be chaired by an independent director. The chair is responsible for leadership of the board and ensuring its effectiveness on behalf of the shareholders." — CalSTRS."

""From then on, we believe that after this has been worked through, the market is going to grow with around 6.8% on average and we're going to grow as you saw by our gains in the marketplace or by our market share gains, we got to grow above that." — Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld, February 8, 2017; "On Engineered Products and Solutions, we expect the revenues to be up low single digits driven by share gains of new aero platforms..." — Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld, January 31, 2017; "I want to show you and demonstrate how we can gain market share with those innovative products and how we can grow with those products..." — Karl Tragl, Group President – EPS at Arconic, December 14, 2016"

""French billionaire Vincent Bolloré treats publicly listed Vivendi like a family hedge fund... The 30 billion-euro conglomerate has subpar corporate governance: Bolloré single-handedly calls the shots... Bolloré's Vivendi fortress would be almost impregnable if he has nearly two-fifths of the vote." — Liam Proud, Reuters, February 15, 2019; "Bolloré using VIV's balance sheet to increase his stake/share of UMG's upside. In our view, investors should reject the OPRA... We believe Bollore is effectively getting creeping control for a very small premium... Rather it is Bolloré exploiting Vivendi's discount to his (and our) fair value." — JP Morgan, February 15, 2019"

""The CEO should not try to be the board members' best friend. Some believe that by keeping up an extensive schedule of private dinners and special events with directors, a CEO can build an atmosphere of rapport and friendship that will carry over into the boardroom. But the board is not the CEO's friend — it is the CEO's boss. The board of directors is not just a collection of individuals — it is an institution with a responsibility for representing the interests of shareholders. Friendship should never allow a CEO to get concurrence when it otherwise wouldn't be coming." — Harvey Golub, Shareholder Nominee, Former Chairman & CEO American Express, September 2009"

""[D]o you ever see a situation where midstream is somehow separated or is a standalone business? ... just in terms of the scale, the importance and maybe the failure of the market to recognize the value in your structure ..." — Wolfe Research, Q4 2024 Earnings Call. "...[W]e believe we can create more shareholder value by keeping the midstream business integrated..." — Mark Lashier, Q4 2024 Earnings Call. "...[T]he question we often get is, can you get full credit for the value of a midstream business that should deserve, a much higher multiple embedded in a diversified company that's often perceived to be a refining company?" — Goldman Sachs, January 7, 2025."

""Based on conversations with investors, we think the market believes that TCO is spending $500M, or 100% of the total expected investment in Beverly Center, to merely preserve 2015 NOI when the project stabilizes in 2020." — KeyBanc, March 11, 2016; "Yet Another Low Development Yield at Beverly Center" — UBS, March 8, 2016; "Yield and IRR Forecasts Paint A Foggy Picture" — UBS, March 8, 2016; "What's most puzzling is why the company did not address the capex/redevelopment needs of the asset earlier knowing that Century City went through a prior redevelopment in 2007 that led to a gradual market share loss for Beverly Center...." — Evercore ISI, March 10, 2016"

""[D]o you ever see a situation where midstream is somehow separated or is a standalone business? ... just in terms of the scale, the importance and maybe the failure of the market to recognize the value in your structure ..." — Wolfe Research, Q4 2024 Earnings Call; "[W]e believe we can create more shareholder value by keeping the midstream business integrated..." — Mark Lashier, Q4 2024 Earnings Call; "...[T]he question we often get is, can you get full credit for the value of a midstream business that should deserve, a much higher multiple embedded in a diversified company that's often perceived to be a refining company?" — Goldman Sachs, January 7, 2025"

""I would say the founders and Peter Chapman knowing what I know." — Former senior scientific employee of IonQ; "...the statements that are being made, I do not believe, are consistent with the capabilities that they have and what they can potentially deliver is the concern... I don't think there's much harm in those. But if you're making outlandish claims that are in a sense so far removed from what can actually be done with what is available today and what can realistically be expected based on know-how and technical understanding of how our system currently behaves, then this can actually be very discouraging." — Former senior scientific employee of IonQ"

"“But again, it’s a challenge trying to track down the real origins of the Sino-Forest partner. No street address is given for Huaihua Yuda Wood on the documents made available by Sino-Forest, only the name of a tiny township called Anjiang in southern Hunan province. There, locals say a company called Yuda did indeed own a crumbling sawmill in the area that has since changed hands. Employees who remained behind at the mill after it was sold say they believed that Huaihua Yuda Wood was indeed a subsidiary of Sino-Forest. “There were Canadians here all the time back then,” said an office worker who would only give her family name, Yi.” — The Globe and Mail"

""Though we acknowledge that DIN trades at a premium valuation relative to its leverage, we believe this is warranted due to the stable characteristics of its franchise model. That model provides a stable stream of royalty revenue that is generally immune to negative operating leverage and fluctuations in commodity and labor costs. Furthermore, the model enables low capital expenditures, thereby maximizing free cash flow." — Goldman Sachs, May 11, 2011; "The company has evolved its business into a more profitable franchise-centric model while bolstering its capital structure and balance sheet with significant debt reductions." — B Riley, October 12, 2011"

""Though we acknowledge that DIN trades at a premium valuation relative to its leverage, we believe this is warranted due to the stable characteristics of its franchise model. That model provides a stable stream of royalty revenue that is generally immune to negative operating leverage and fluctuations in commodity and labor costs. Furthermore, the model enables low capital expenditures, thereby maximizing free cash flow." — Goldman Sachs, May 11, 2011; "The company has evolved its business into a more profitable franchise-centric model while bolstering its capital structure and balance sheet with significant debt reductions." — B Riley, October 12, 2011"

""[D]o you ever see a situation where midstream is somehow separated or is a standalone business? ... just in terms of the scale, the importance and maybe the failure of the market to recognize the value in your structure ..." — Wolfe Research, Q4 2024 Earnings Call; "[W]e believe we can create more shareholder value by keeping the midstream business integrated..." — Mark Lashier, Q4 2024 Earnings Call; "[T]he question we often get is, can you get full credit for the value of a midstream business that should deserve, a much higher multiple embedded in a diversified company that's often perceived to be a refining company?" — Goldman Sachs, January 7, 2025"

""[D]o you ever see a situation where midstream is somehow separated or is a standalone business? ... just in terms of the scale, the importance and maybe the failure of the market to recognize the value in your structure ..." — Wolfe Research, Q4 2024 Earnings Call; "[W]e believe we can create more shareholder value by keeping the midstream business integrated..." — Mark Lashier, Q4 2024 Earnings Call; "[T]he question we often get is, can you get full credit for the value of a midstream business that should deserve, a much higher multiple embedded in a diversified company that's often perceived to be a refining company?" — Goldman Sachs, January 7, 2025"

""[D]o you ever see a situation where midstream is somehow separated or is a standalone business? ... just in terms of the scale, the importance and maybe the failure of the market to recognize the value in your structure ..." — Wolfe Research, Q4 2024 Earnings Call; "[W]e believe we can create more shareholder value by keeping the midstream business integrated..." — Mark Lashier, Q4 2024 Earnings Call; "[T]he question we often get is, can you get full credit for the value of a midstream business that should deserve, a much higher multiple embedded in a diversified company that's often perceived to be a refining company?" — Goldman Sachs, January 7, 2025"

"“I wouldn't say that nothing that we tried worked. I've been on a number of calls with people, a lot of them are into the hype, and they hear a hesitation in my voice, and they just can't believe that it's not real for whatever reason. But this is an extraordinarily hard thing to do to the point that most people can't really understand how hard it is...Most people who have not done some kind of industrial work in the past just have no idea how difficult this stuff is, how uncertain it is... This is a super-difficult problem like, basically, Nobel-Prize-winning work needs to be done to make solid-state batteries real.” — Former employee of Quantumscape"

""[Henry] Singleton [the CEO of Teledyne] believed in an extreme form of organizational decentralization with a wafer-thin corporate staff at headquarters and operational responsibility and authority concentrated in the general managers of the business units. This was very different from the approach of his peers, who typically had elaborate headquarters staffs replete with vice presidents and MBAs." "Singleton was an iconoclast and the idiosyncratic path he chose to follow caused much comment and consternation on Wall Street and in the business press. It turned out that he was right to ignore the skeptics." — William N. Thorndike, Jr., The Outsiders"

"“I don’t understand either. I mean, if they really believe down to earth that this was going to be a successful thing, you would think that they would actually commit, but they don’t. So, there must be something that they know they don’t say; who knows? It’s unclear to me how they can actually just hold both positions and then somehow make others believe that this is going to be a successful enterprise without a doubt. It’s confusing. When you talk to some of the candidates that are interviewing at IonQ, some of them actually ask the same questions, and I don’t hear a good answer.” — Former senior member of IonQ technical staff in a critical role"

""We strongly believe that we are in a great position to establish a first-mover advantage to roll out a product that performs well on a pizza... Nondairy cheese, on the other hand, has relatively few players and is a space we feel we can be successful in." — COO Beckmann, Feb 4, 2021. "We feel very good about swapping cheese, I guess, traditional cheese volume for plant-based cheese volume and the margins are very, very healthy." — CEO, Feb 10, 2022. "Quite frankly, who likes the product? They have a substantial plan for retail and are pushing hard, but I think the sales team is struggling." — Former U.S. Sales Executive, Spruce Point Interview."

"“Thank you, Peter, and good afternoon, everyone. I would like to start off by quickly going through some of our financial results in more detail. Earlier in Q3, we raised our full year 2021 forecasted bookings expectations from $5 million to $15 million. Today, I am happy to announce that as of the end of Q3, our total bookings for the year have already exceeded our increased expectations for the full year ending up at $15.1 million. We believe this is a recognition of the promise our customers see in our platform, and resulted from customers buying more and also earlier than we had expected.” — CFO, IonQ Q3 2021 earnings call on Nov 15, 2021"